Are you familiar with Bookshare?
Bookshare is a massive online library, and the world’s largest collection of accessible titles that consists of almost 400,000 digital books meant for people around the world with print disabilities. Any person who has been confirmed by an expert that they have low vision/ blindness, physical disabilities, and learning disabilities (full list here) qualify for Bookshare. These books are available in various formats – text to speech, digital braille, enlarged fonts and more.
Bookshare is made free to qualified US based students, thanks to funding by OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education). Non students pay a nominal fee to access the titles.
Bookshare is used by hundreds of thousands of children in the US school system with print disabilities. The collection consists of a lot of manuals, how-to guides, best sellers, literature etc. that help students with disabilities educate themselves and become more career oriented. GROW (Getting Ready for the Outside World), a 10 month vocational program offered by Riverview School in Massachussetts, has its material on bookshare that students can quickly access and read.
Accessible books also help students with disabilities learn at their own pace and comprehend the content well, keep up with their peers, and encourage them to read more regularly and more often which results in lower dropout rates and a a continued zeal to learn.
Watch this video to learn more about Bookshare and who it is for.
